The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-08

SINGULAR CASE OF PATHETIC
OUTGROWTh OF SENSlBlLITY.


Affection. A Particularly Hidsous
Pair Of Ears-A Sort of Holy Grail
Quest.
heard of a pathetic outgrowth of nervous
sensibiity the other day. A professional
man who lives at the West End, and who Is
not only painfully self-conscious man, but
also one given To observing things about him
with great minuteness, has become SO acutely
susceptible to the essential uglinesS OF the
human ear that he scarcely sees anything else
in the people about him than their ears. To
IA ply yscian, an expert in nervous affections,
whom he wise enough to consult, this
gentleman told his story somewhat after this
fashion: "It was many as five or six years
ago that the sight of particularly hideouS
pair OF ears one of which had been slit in a
CHASTITY manner i'll some accident or fight set
me to rejecting on the extraordinary caprice
of Providence in setting, in the most conspic-
uous place upon the head Of its curious
earthly achievement, such utterly absurd and
unsghtly contrivances human ears The
ear is useful, no dpubt; but might not an in
finite ingenuity and omnipotent choice
have provided man with an auditory appli-
ance less hideous than this convoluted ex-
crescencei
STUDYING 1T UP.
II was led to ask myself, is there any such
IDllR tS a Dt3tlltllli up
all the passages in polite literature i'll which
the human eur Is referred to, and found not
only that such passages are extremely few,
but that the beauty referred to-all the COM
parisoiIs, of delicate, pink edged feminine To
the translucent interiors of sea shells, and the
like are simply comparative. No poet ever
thought, 80 tar | could find, of finding alb
solute beauty IN the ear 1t Is only as
pendent %. an accompaniment, less hideous
f..l al of
"a lovely woman, that the actual ear itself, as
apart from the faculty of hearing, ever be-
comes toIerable in poetry. In art the ear is
"a thing uo ie dissembled; no realist was ever
So unblushins IA faithfully to paint the ear as
il il. Photography reveals 1t in all its ugli-
noS>; but poetry bears the same relation To
art that the dissection of the body does To the
love ct humanity
The running OF these through my mind
l,l me to start "a sort of Holy Grail quest for
u really beautiful human ear, and at the
same time | found myself searching out,
whenever got upon IA street ear on IA railway
train, and 1 walked down the crowded
streets. all the uglie>t ears, with the in
stinctiye eagerneSs ot II connoiSseur The ear
habit grew upon me. became sort of col
hector OF ears When came into IA railway
train filled with people, my eye ran down the
hong rows of ears next the aisle To whether
there was II vacancy in the devious lines
that | might ill with my own. That
OF ears, To "a man who had fallen into tho
habit of observing nothing else but the ears,
WAS horribly suggestive of ii serpent.
NOTHING But EARS, EARS, EARS.
Il say that all this began five or six years
ago, but, of course, my nania-for such it
has hs,'ome-did not all at once take this seri-
ous form. IL has been IA gradual growth.
Now find it threatening, perhaps not my
tul hal | fA,l Ia nf pla
tanning that, but my peace of mind certainly,
and all my obi sensibility To the beauty OF the
human form and the lovelinesS of life about
My old keen sense of the beautiful l
lament IA fallen angel might lament the
joys OF paradise. For me there is nothing in
the world hut ears, ears, ears. The pleasure
that 1 sometimes feel i'll meeting specimen
less hideotIs than the rest does not repay me
for the oirense which the uniform dead level
of i'll -shapen growth inticts upon NE; and l
am resolved, If medical science can do any
thing for 80 strange IA malady, To take the
utmost possible advantage of 1t. IL 1t could
So influence my organs of sight as to make it
impossible for NE ever again to the hu-
man ear at all, 1t woull be n consumInation
devoutly To lie wished
l understand that the eminent physician
consulted iii this completely non
pllls-ed for IA time, but has at last succeeded
IN So influencing the sufferers thoughts and
attention by diverting them to other chan
nels that he is already somewhat less poign-
antly conscious of the ears he sees that the
doctor is, i'll fact lighting the old mania with
new one, and intends to check the new be-
fore 1t, i'll its turn, shall take possession of the
patient, did the other. The case, have
no doubt, will suggest to more than
reader something of similar sort IN his
knowledge or experience. 1t is only one Of
MANY mpTbhl outurTOWthS a the keen con
sCiouSneS~, the rawntss of sens bility that
overwOrk aud intense mental strain have
superinduced- Boston Post.